LIBERALIZATION / PRIVATIZATION
In the last 20 years the electricity market has rapidly changed. Under the influence of the wave of neo-liberal globalization spreading across the world, electricity production has been liberalized and privatized. Under pressure from the IMF and World Bank this process has been going on in developing countries for some time now.
The current GATS negotiations also focus on energy as a service that has to be liberalized. If this succeeds the electricity market will come under WTO ruling, and it will be nearly impossible to reverse the changes.
The nuclear business will be in trouble in a liberalized market, as British Energy’s financial collapse and the California energy crisis showed. But they are anticipating this.
Giant nuclear utilities such as Electricité de France have been on a shopping spree, buying up businesses all over the world. They hope that these subsidiaries will make the profits they need to offset the losses they anticipate from selling nuclear electricity in a liberalized market.
WISE Amsterdam is running a project from March 2003 till December 2004 which focuses on the liberalized energy market in the Netherlands and will link this to projects elsewhere on the world.
Further reading: